The Journal's all-purpose sports report.

Hot Seat at the U.S. Open to Watch Djokovic

A packed Louis Armstrong Stadium watches play between Novak Djokovic and Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Associated Press

On Monday afternoon, fans with tickets to the U.S. Open’s No. 1 venue were faced with a difficult decision: Use that ticket or go see the world’s No. 1 tennis player, Novak Djokovic.

Overwhelmingly, fans headed for Louis Armstrong Stadium, which at 10,103 seats holds less than half of Arthur Ashe Stadium’s 23,771 capacity, to see Djokovic eventually dismantle Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. By 11 a.m., when the doubles match preceding Djokovic’s was set to start, Armstrong’s non-reserved seating was filled and hundreds of people formed a line through the Open grounds, stretching the equivalent of five Manhattan blocks.

“You’d rather see the good players up close,” said Peena Kathait, who has been coming to the Open since 1981, and stood on line for Djokovic despite having tickets to Ashe. “In Ashe, the tickets you can get are all the way up.”

“We’d rather come sit here and watch it, but this is ridiculous.”

This problem happens at many Opens—last year, a long line formed when rain moved a Roger Federer match from Ashe to Armstrong. Kathait also complained that unlike earlier in the Open, when there are a variety of top players on the side courts that provide up-close views, those were now filled with players in the junior tournament.

By 2018, this problem may be alleviated, when a new 15,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium projects to open.

In the meantime, not everybody made the same call as Kathait. Alex Mang chose to stay in some of Arthur Ashe’s worst seats—the last row of section 338, stuck in the corner of the stadium with seats angled not directly at the court—instead of going to see Djokovic.

After getting sunburnt sitting in Armstrong on Sunday, he said he had one reason to be happy for his nose-bleed accommodations: Shade.

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.

When Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao step into the ring on May 2, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds—an odd, seemingly random number that has long held a special mystique.